


your heart (my heart)

by annperkinsface



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 11:31:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16196672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annperkinsface/pseuds/annperkinsface
Summary: He finds Roxas on the top of the clocktower, leaning back on his palms, head tipped back to look at the sky. Sora had bound up the old, rickety steps three at a time, breathless in his excitement, but now that he's crested the staircase and emerged onto the roof Sora has to stop, stare. Swallow around the tightening of his throat. Roxas’ posture is easy and open and loose, the light of the sunset tangled in his hair, and it’s somehow more surreal than fighting by his side in that final battle, trading Keyblades and quicksilver grins.





	your heart (my heart)

He finds Roxas on the top of the clocktower, leaning back on his palms, head tipped back to look at the sky. Sora had bound up the old, rickety steps three at a time, breathless in his excitement, but now that he's crested the staircase and emerged onto the roof Sora has to stop, stare. Swallow around the tightening of his throat. Roxas’ posture is easy and open and loose, the light of the sunset tangled in his hair, and it’s somehow more surreal than fighting by his side in that final battle, trading Keyblades and quicksilver grins. It's everything Sora's ever wanted for him—everything he's fought so hard for—but, as nice as the image is, it's still not quite right somehow. He's struggling to put his finger on why when suddenly it hits him: the space on either side of Roxas is empty, unoccupied by Xion or Lea or any of the Twilight Town kids, and it wrenches through him, sitting coldly in his belly. Sora has never, ever wanted Roxas to be alone.

So he bounds over to fill it himself, dropping down and dangling his legs over the edge, grinning a sideways grin when Roxas turn his head to meet his eyes.  
  
"I thought I'd find you up here.”  
  
"Hm," says Roxas, rucking his mouth, but a smile is in his eyes. “About time. I was just about to call you out for standing around like a creep.”  
  
Sora splutters. “Jerk,” he says, fighting a grin, but Roxas’ face cracks into a smirk and Sora gives it up for good. He looks at Roxas, the slant of his mouth, the curve of his cheek. Thinks about Ven, the fumbling and confusion whenever the two of them are in the same room, but Sora wonders how anyone could get them confused when the hearts behind their faces are so different. Sora's got them memorized. He shoves Roxas playfully and laughs when a bright eyed Roxas jostles him back. He settles back down on his hands, smiling breathlessly. “So what are you doing all by yourself, huh? I thought it would take a miracle to pry Lea and Xion off you.”  
  
“We’re meeting up later,” says Roxas. “Xion and Naminé are going clothes shopping, I think. And Axel….uh, Lea….is in some competition with Kairi over who can do the most odd jobs around town. Loser has to do the other’s bidding for a week.” Roxas ducks his head, smile turning strange. He closes his eyes and breathes, his right hand coming up to grip his shirt, over his heart. Softly, he says, “I kinda needed some time to myself.”

“Oh,” says Sora. “Do you want me to leave?”  
  
Time lapses. One heartbeat, three. Sora waits, his own heart in his throat, until Roxas shakes his head. He opens his eyes and lowers his hand, the gentle curve of his mouth at odds with the way he says, “Don't be stupid.”  
  
“Hey,” Sora protests but he’s smiling. He can’t not.  
  
"It's just a little disorienting," says Roxas. “Having a body again. Or...even having a body that's just mine. You know?"  
  
Sora doesn't know. He can't and that truth always stoppers in his throat. It overwhelms him sometimes, how much Roxas has lost, how much he has had to regain. How much they all have, Aqua and Xion and all the rest. Sora blinks past the burning in his eyes. He hesitates for the barest of moments, watching Roxas carefully. He inches into Roxas’ space, slowly enough for Roxas to move away. He doesn’t. He goes impossibly still and Sora presses the palm of his hand flat on Roxas’ chest, smiling at the thrum of his heartbeat. “This is yours though,” Sora says, tapping his chest. “It always has been.”

Roxas looks down at Sora's hand and then up at his face, huffing out a laugh, a soft kind of disbelief Sora recognizes from The World That Never Was, when Sora finally got to tell Roxas that he was his own person and he had a right to exist. Roxas' smile unfurls and it is luminescent, equal parts wry and wondering. “Thanks,” he says. “I grew it myself.”

Yeah you did, Sora thinks, beaming with pride. “Heh,” says Sora, fingers curling in, liking the contrast of them against the white jacket. “It's strong,” he notes but he didn't need to feel Roxas’ heart under his fingers to know that. “Healthy. All in all, I think you did a pretty good job.”

He gives one last tender pat, tries to draw his hand away but doesn't get far before Roxas seizes it. Sora freezes, holding his breath. He watches Roxas’ throat work, pinned in place by the emotion burning behind Roxas’ eyes.

“I'm glad it was you,” Roxas says, holding fast to his wrist.

Sora swallows. Frowns. “Roxas, c’mon, didn't I tell you—”

“I’m my own person, I know,” Roxas says, smiling. “Trust me, I've got it memorized.” He softens his grip on Sora's wrist, thumb brushing his pulse point in something like apology. “But if it had to be anyone I'm glad it was you.” He looks at Sora, silhouetted by the sunset, and even when it darkens his hair, brightens his eyes, Roxas only ever looks like himself, his gaze soft but intent. “I told you too, didn't I? You make a good Other.”

Three lifetimes of memories and here they are for the first time together. Heart, body, and soul. Sora has doubted, and fought, and bled—has made and unmade himself again and again—but in the end they could've never been here at all.

Sora smiles, soft.

He says, “I'm glad it was you too."

**Author's Note:**

> look i was SO convinced i was going to write soriku this kh go around but then roxas held sora's hands so tenderly in dream drop distance and this happened. still going to give that a go but my writer's brain had to churn this out before kh3.
> 
> comments are my life's blood!!!


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